Louisa May Alcott Quotes

237 Sourced Quotes

Jo's ambition was to do something very splendid; what it was she had no idea, as yet, but left it for time to tell her…

Louisa May Alcott
Fame is a pearl many dive for and only a few bring up.

Louisa May Alcott
It was not a fashionable place, but even among the pleasant people there, the girls made few friends, preferring to live for one another.

Louisa May Alcott
Our actions are in our own hands, but the consequences of them are not. Remember that, my dear, and think twice before you do anything.

Louisa May Alcott
Now and then, in this workaday world, things do happen in the delightful storybook fashion, and what a comfort that is.

Louisa May Alcott
Dan clung to her in speechless gratitude, feeling the blessedness of mother love, — that divine gift which comforts, purifies, and strengthens all who seek it.

Louisa May Alcott
The child has talent, loves music, and needs help. I can't give her money, but I can teach her; so I do, and she is the most promising pupil I have. Help one another, is part of the religion of our sisterhood, Fan.

Louisa May Alcott
Six weeks is a long time to wait, and a still longer time for a girl to keep a secret…

Louisa May Alcott
Meg learned to love her husband better for his poverty, because it seem to have made a man of him, giving him the strength and courage to fight his own way, and taught him a tender patience with which to bear and comfort the natural longings and failures of those he loved.

Louisa May Alcott
I wait for a chance to confer a great favor, and let the small ones slip; but they tell best in the end, I fancy.

Louisa May Alcott
Love is a flower that grows in any soil, works its sweet miracles undaunted by autumn frost or winter snow, blooming fair and fragrant all the year, and blessing those who give and those who receive.

Louisa May Alcott
All is fish that comes to the literary net. Goethe put his joys and sorrows into poems. I turn my adventures into bread and butter.

Louisa May Alcott
I believe that it is as much a right and duty for women to do something with their lives as for men and we are not going to be satisfied with such frivolous parts as you give us.

Louisa May Alcott
Jo's face was a study next day, for the secret rather weighed upon her, and she found it hard not to look mysterious and important. Meg observed it, but did not troubled herself to make inquiries, for she had learned that the best way to manage Jo was by the law of contraries, so she felt sure of being told everything if she did not ask.

Louisa May Alcott
Tomorrow was her birthday, and she was thinking how fast the years went by, how old she was getting, and how little she seemed to have accomplished. Almost twenty-five and nothing to show for it.

Louisa May Alcott
Young men often laugh at the sensible girls whom they secretly respect, and affect to admire the silly ones whom they secretly despise, because earnestness, intelligence, and womanly dignity are not the fashion.

Louisa May Alcott
She was one of those happily created beings who please without effort, make friends everywhere, and take life so gracefully and easily that less fortunate souls are tempted to believe that such are born under a lucky star.

Louisa May Alcott
Misfortune was much more interesting to her than good luck.

Louisa May Alcott
You think your temper is the worst in the world, but mine used to be just like it. … I've been trying to cure it for forty years, and have only succeeded in controlling it. I am angry nearly every day of my life, but I have learned not to show it; and I still try to hope not to feel it, though it may take me another forty years to do it. … I've learned to check the hasty words that rise to my lips, and when I feel that they mean to break out against my will, I just go away for a minute, and give myself a little shake for being so weak and wicked.

Louisa May Alcott
Some books are so familiar that reading them is like being home again.

Louisa May Alcott
I keep turning over new leaves, and spoiling them, as I used to spoil my copybooks; and I make so many beginnings there never will be an end. (Jo March)

Louisa May Alcott
Cast your bread upon the waters, and after many days it will come back buttered.

Louisa May Alcott
Such hours are beautiful to live, but very hard to describe…

Louisa May Alcott
To marry without love betrays as surely as to love without marriage...

Louisa May Alcott
You may try your experiment for a week and see how you like it. I think by Saturday night you will find that all play and no work is as bad as all work and no play

Louisa May Alcott
Love Jo all your days, if you choose, but don't let it spoil you, for it's wicked to throw away so many good gifts because you can't have the one you want.

Louisa May Alcott
The female population exceeds the male, you know, especially in New England, which accounts for the high state of culture we are in, perhaps.

Louisa May Alcott
The homeliest tasks get beautified if loving hands do them.

Louisa May Alcott
He is like a great fire, where all can come and be warmed and comforted.

Louisa May Alcott
Men are always ready to die for us, but not to make our lives worth having. Cheap sentiment and bad logic.

Louisa May Alcott